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'''Kenneth Robert ("Ken") Rosewall''' ([[2 novembre]], [[1934]] [[Sydney]], [[Australia]]) è stato un giocatore di [[tennis]], famoso per il proprio colpo di rovescio, che ha avuto una carriera eccezionalmente lunga ai più alti livelli dagli [[Anni 1950|anni cinquanta]] ai primi [[Anni 1970|anni settanta]].
'''Kenneth Robert ("Ken") Rosewall''' (born [[November 2]], [[1934]] in [[Sydney]], [[Australia]], attended [[Kogarah High School]] 1947-1949) is a former champion [[tennis]] player with a renowned [[backhand]] who enjoyed an exceptionally long career at the highest levels, from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. He was one of the two best players for about nine years and the '''[[World No. 1 Tennis Player Rankings|World No. 1]]''' player in the early 1960s. During his career he was ranked among the top 20 players, amateur or professional, every year from 1952 to 1977.
Rosewall was born into a family that played tennis and owned tennis courts. A natural left-hander, he was taught by his father to play right-handed. Perhaps as a result of this unorthodox training (or in spite of it), he developed a powerful and very effective backhand but never had anything more than an accurate but relatively soft serve. He was 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) and 135 pounds, and was called "Muscles" by his fellow-players because of his lack of them. He was, however, fast, agile, and tireless, with a deadly volley. His sliced backhand was his strongest shot, and, along with the very different backhand of the earlier player [[Don Budge]], has generally been considered one of the two best backhands of all time.
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Knowing that he could reached the last rounds of the French tournament and then being too tired to correctly play at Wimbledon as he made the experience in 1968 and 1969 (he lost as early as the 4th and 3rd round those years at Wimbledon), Rosewall then decided not to play anymore Roland Garros in the 70's in order to be in good condition for Wimbledon.
Being a NTL player at the beginning of '''1970''' he didn't play the Australian Open held at the White City courts at Sydney in January (if the NTL players were absent, the WCT players were there) because McCall, the NTL boss, and his players thought (it is true) that prize money was very low for a Grand Slam tournament. But two months later, in March, a tournament, sponsored by Dunlop, was organized at the same site, with a much more dense field because of a) a better prize-money and b) a better date : there was about the same best players as in the Grand Slam tournament and in addition this time not only the NTL pros came but even some independent pros who usually never made the trip Down Under as
To fight against the WCT and NTL promoters who controlled their own players not allowed to compete where they wanted ''(now a Federer or a Davydenko can enter any tournament he wishes whereas a Stolle or a Newcombe couldn't choose their tournaments in those years)'', Kramer invented, probably in December 1969, the Grand Prix circuit open to every player. The first Grand Prix circuit was born in 1970 including 20 tournaments from Bournemouth (begun on April 27) to Stockholm (ended on December 1). These tournaments gave points according their categories and the players's performances and the top six players in ranking points were invited in a big 6-man tournament called the Masters (at Tokyo) held for the first time. All the amateurs and all the independent pros fully invested themselves in this circuit while the contract pros played firstly their circuit and eventually played in some Grand Prix tournaments (for instance Roy Emerson ended third in the prize money rankings because he concentrated (and had to) mainly on the NTL-WCT circuit whereas he was ranked only 20th in the Grand Prix circuit. But Rosewall or Laver succeeded well in the two circuits. The final Grand Prix ranking was 1) Cliff Richey (independent pro), 2) Arthur Ashe (independent pro), 3) Ken Rosewall (contract pro). Thus qualified for the Masters Rosewall was again third behind 1) Stan Smith, the winner (a U.S. Army employee who had to serve his "boss" just after the Masters in December 1970 until April next year, then missing all the tournaments including the Australian Open in March 1971) and 2) his 1970 nemesis, Laver.
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Finally, again another opinion was emitted which was probably the best compromise between all the diverse opinions : the three Australians ranked co-number ones as Robert Geist wrote in his book ''DER GRÖSSTE MEISTER Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall''.
After his finals at Sydney and at Wimbledon and his victory at the U.S. Open in 1970 Rosewall continued in '''1971''' his good performances in the great grasscourt tournaments. One year after the first Dunlop Open held in Sydney, Rosewall was back for the second Dunlop tournament at Sydney which was this time the real Australian Open, held in March 1971 on the White City Courts. For once this tournament deserved the 'Grand Slam tournament' label. Among the 14 first editions of the Open tournament (1969-1982) only the 1969 and the 1971 editions had a strong field with many (but not all) of the best players. Since it was sponsored by Dunlop in 1971 all the WCT players (including the ancient NTL players since spring 1970) entered (Newcombe, Rosewall, Laver, Roche, Okker, Ashe (a WCT player since the beginning of the year) and so on) and some independent pros also came (nevertheless Smith (under Army's service), Richey, Graebner and the not yet good grasscourt players
As most (but not all) WCT players Rosewall didn't play Roland Garros (as in 1970) and still tried to reach his seventies goal, Wimbledon : in the quarterfinals Rosewall had to fight for about four hours against Richey, 6-8 5-7 6-4 9-7 7-5 whereas Newcombe had a very easy match against Dibley, 6-1 6-2 6-3. Therefore in the semis the old Rosewall was no match for the fitted Newcombe. Later Rosewall, as some (but not all) other WCT players (Laver, Gimeno, Emerson, Drysdale, Stolle, Roche ...), was absent at Forest Hills (due obviously to the growing conflict between the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) and the WCT organization but also because of his children's illnesses).
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Though he has played few Grand Prix tournaments, as a WCT player, he had enough Grand Prix Points to play the Masters held about ten days after his WCT Finals victory but he refused the invitation for he was very tired after such a long season and he took his holidays of end of the year (Newcombe knew the identical situation and acted the same and strangely enough both players came back at the same tournament, the 1972 Australian Open).
Rosewall won 8 tournaments and about 78.4% of his matches (76 out of 97) in 1971. In direct confrontations he trailed Newcombe 1-3, Laver 2-3 but has dominated Smith 1-0 (Rosewall never met
Collins, Elian or Geist ranked Rosewall third after Newcombe and/or Smith. Tingay ranked Rosewall 4th, Rino Tommasi 1st, and the Martini-Rossi award was given jointly to Smith and Newcombe : that year too, as in 1970, there was no clearly undisputed number one.
'''1972''' was a true return to separate circuits because all the traditional events organized by the ILTF and held from January 1 to July were forbidden to the WCT players : as ever the Davis Cup but also Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The 1972 Australian Open organizers used a trick to avoid the ILTF's ban of the WCT players : they held the tournament from the previous year, on December 26, 1971, that is to say six days before the ILTF's ban could be applied, to January 2, 1972. Thus all the contract (and, of course, independent) pros could have come but few were interested because the tournament was held during Christmas and the New Year's Day. In moving the dates from March (in 1971) to December-January they almost killed the tournament which happily strengthened since 1983. A fragile agreement in the spring of 1972 let the WCT players come back to the traditional circuit in August (in Merion, WCT players Okker and Roger Taylor played, the latter defeating independent pros Connors and Malcolm Anderson in the final rounds) : thus the U.S. Open, won by Ilie
In many 1972 rankings there were 6 or 7 WCT players in the world top10 (the 3 or 4 independent pros were Smith,
Because of the ILTF's ban once again Rosewall couldn't enter Wimbledon.
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As explained before from August 1972 the players could enter almost all the tournaments they wanted and the real open era began (at Forest Hills they created the ATP)
Rosewall won 7 tournaments in 1972 (including the very depleted Australian Open) and was ranked, by Judith Elian or Tingay or McCauley, #3 behind Smith and
The beginning of '''1973''' was identical to the second half of 1972 for Rosewall : a desert. After his second round loss at the 1972 U.S. Open (against Mark Cox) he recorded his probable worst defeat in his whole career against Karl Meiler in his first match (second round) of the 1973 Australian Open (once again with a very weak field because as in 1972 just Rosewall and Newcombe among the Top20 came). More important : between May 1972 (victory at Dallas) and April 1973 (victory at Houston, River Oaks) Rosewall captured only two minor titles, Tokyo WCT (not giving points for the WCT Finals) and Brisbane (in December 1972) where the only Top20 player was himself. If 1967 has been the first year of a relative decline with however many highlights, 1973 (and more accurately his "after-Dallas 1972") has been the real start of Rosewall's true decline : admittedly he was still one of the best players but not one fighting for the first place.
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He still stayed in the Top10 (ATP, Collins, Tommasi) or the Top15 in '''1975''' winning 5 tournaments (Jackson, Houston-River Oaks, Louisville, Gstaad, Tokyo Gunze Open) and his two singles in Davis Cup against New-Zealand (this event has been finally open to contract pros in 1973 : that year Rosewall was selected by Neale Fraser for the semifinals doubles). Rosewall made his last attempt at Wimbledon, at over 40, and as in his first Wimbledon Open (in 1968) he lost in the same round (4th) and against the same player (Tony Roche).
In '''1976''' Rosewall quit the Top10 but stayed in the Top20 for he won 3 tournaments Brisbane, Jackson WCT and Hong-Kong (over
'''1977''' was the Rosewall's last year in the Top20 : this means he has been one of the best players for 26 years (in the Top20 from 1952 to 1977). He won his last tournament at Hong-Kong at 43 years old.
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''neither his 1972 Australian Open victory''
''nor his 1968 Wembley Pro
This list is much better than the list of '''his official record of 23 major tournaments''' including 4 Grand Slam Amateur tournaments (Australia 53, 55 - Roland Garros 53 - Forest Hills 56), 15 major Professional tournaments '''until 1967''' (Wembley Pro 57, 60, 61, 62, 63 - French Pro 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 - US Pro 63, 65) and 4 Grand Slam Open tournaments '''since 1968''' (Roland Garros 68, US Open 70, Australia 71, 72) because that list includes depleted tournaments and brushes aside some greater events.
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Laver also said, in the same book, that, in his mind, Paris and Rosewall were as firmly linked as Sydney and oysters. Indeed we can note that '''Rosewall is the recordman of French Championships singles titles, 10 crowns far ahead of Borg (6 titles)''' and Cochet (the latter has 5 and not 4 crowns because he has also captured a French Pro in 1936), an almost completely unknown exploit : '''8 Pro''', '''1 Open''' and '''1 Amateur''' titles. 6 of these tournaments were held at Roland Garros on clay then '''Rosewall is also corecordman with Borg of Roland Garros titles''', another unknown feat, and the 4 other ones were played at Stade Pierre de Coubertin, indoor on wood. Between his defeat at Roland Garros Pro against Hoad for 3rd place on September 13, 1959 and his loss to Laver in the final of the Paris Pro Championships on April 9, 1967, Rosewall stayed unbeaten at Paris, winning 7 French Pro in a row from 1960 to 1966.
'''Rosewall is also the player who has won the most singles titles of Wembley Pro in the pre-open era (5) ahead of Gonzales (4) and Laver (4), a tournament which was often the most important of the time.''' In adding their less important Wembley victories in the open era, Rosewall and Laver have, each one, captured 6 crowns (that tournament was usually held in September-October : in the sixties there was another tournament held at Wembley which was a 4-man less important event held in spring and sponsored by BBC2).
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|| [[1971]] || '''perhaps 3''' || Elian, Collins and Rex Bellamy ranked Rosewall third after the duet Newcombe/Smith.
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|| [[1972]] || '''perhaps 3''' || Tingay, Frank Rostron and Elian ranked Smith,
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|| [[1973]] || '''between 6 and 9''' || Elian placed Rosewall at the 7th rank, Tennis Magazine (US) at 9 and ATP at 6.
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|| [[1975]] || '''Top10-Top15''' || ATP seemed to have overrated Rosewall (6th place) because all the tennis experts have ranked Rosewall from the 7th place (Barry Lorge) to beyond the tenth one (Elian).
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|| [[1976]] || '''Top15''' || Collins ranking : 1) Connors, 2) Borg, 3)
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|| [[1977]] || '''Top15''' || ATP : 12.
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* ''The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis'' ([[1979]]), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
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